Atalanta v Paris Saint-Germain: Can Serie A side spring a surprise against Champions League hopefuls PSG?

The Serie A side are, by some distance, the lowest calibre club left in the competition, but Gian Piero Gasperini’s side could prove to be the slipperiest of banana skins for the French giants.

Indeed, there’s an argument to be made that Atalanta were Italy’s strongest team at the time of the conclusion of the 2019/20 Serie A season.

They might have finished on a defeat to Inter, but before that came an 17-match unbeaten run which included a nine-match winning streak. Atalanta were, for a period, unstoppable.

• Mario's the man for Atalanta

The rise of Atalanta has been one of Serie A’s defining storylines over the last two seasons, with Gasperini harnessing a group of talented young players and building something that amounts to far more than the sum of their parts.

While Atalanta’s rise might be mysterious to some, with the club operating on a budget far below that of their rivals, their success is no fluke or flash in the pan.

Atalanta are a tactically complex outfit, which means Thomas Tuchel and his players will have to do their homework before Wednesday’s Champions League quarter final clash. Gasperini has a true grasp of the mechanisms of the sport and is capable of switching between a number of approaches and formations, although a back three tends to be a constant throughout.

It’s an attack where Atalanta’s players have thrived most. Josip Ilicic, Luis Muriel and Duvan Zapata scored 51 Serie A goals between them this season, with Papu Gomez the creative force behind them with 16 assists over the course of the 2019/20 campaign.

It’s this firepower which has seen Gasperini’s side simply blow away opponents, putting eight goals past Valencia in the Champions League round of 16.

This is a team that finished the Serie A season as top scorers, with 98 goals from 38 games - 17 goals more than the league’s next top scorers (Inter). Of the sides still left in this season’s Champions League, only Bayern Munich, Manchester City and PSG have found the back of the net more frequently than Atalanta have.

Much of Atalanta’s attacking play sees them target wide areas to create overloads. This is where PSG could find themselves in trouble against the Italians, with Tuchel’s side frequently vulnerable in the wing back positions.

PSG don’t tend to play with out-and-out wingers in attack and so it’s down to the likes of Juan Bernat and Thilo Kehrer to provide width.

The absence of Angel di Maria - and Kylian Mbappe possibly starting on the bench after injury - will only rob PSG of even more width and so Gasperini would be wise to target the space in behind the opposition full backs.

Atalanta maintain their width at almost all times and so PSG’s defence must stay alert in order to plug any gaps that could appear due to stretching.

PSG have been defensively sound in this season’s Champions League, keeping a clean sheet in six of their last eight matches in the competition, but they have yet to face a test quite like this.

Atalanta have scored at least three goals in each of their last three Champions League matches, meaning there is real value in the price of 11/4 for over 4.5 goals.

This has the potential to be the tie of the quarter finals in this season’s Champions League, with both Atalanta and PSG teams that prioritise attack above all else.

The Italians could be dark horses to make a deep run into the latter stages of the competition, with 4/1 on Atalanta to win in 90 minutes and both teams to score representing exceptional value given what we know heading into this match.

What might have initially looked like the best draw for PSG could prove to be the one tailor-made to expose their weaknesses.

Follow Graham Ruthven on Twitter here

Odds correct as of 1700 BST on 11/08/20

Mario's the man for Atalanta

The first game of the new Champions League format sees Atalanta take on PSG. Tom Carnduff picks out two best bets. Take a look by clicking the image below...

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